"Ladies and gentlemen: It is now 11:28 noon BJ time. We have arrived at the BJ Capital International Airport. The current ground temperature is zero degrees Celsius. Due to the large temperature difference between inside and outside the cabin, please adjust your clothes in advance. The plane has The descent has begun and is expected to land in 10 minutes. Please fasten your seat belt, put away the tray table, straighten the seat back, and open the sun visor..."
Lao Bai stared out the window blankly. The large criss-crossing green farmland that he could see every time before landing had disappeared into a large cloud of tawny sand and dust. Before landing, he checked the weather in BJ specifically, so that Unfortunately, what greeted him was not the warm winter sun, but the long-lost sandstorm.
Fortunately, the sandstorm did not affect the plane's landing. As long as the plane was not delayed, it would not miss his afternoon mission.
As early as before Christmas, he had arranged for Lebai to receive domestic tour groups during New Year's Day and Spring Festival. Normally, at this time, other people should be taking domestic tourists shopping in Paris, Milan, Luxembourg, Barcelona and other places, and he We should be on a Norwegian cruise ship with Lele, eating high-quality and cheap seafood and admiring the beautiful aurora, instead of sitting in a closed cabin and eating unpalatable airplane meals to "enjoy" the sandstorm.
What directly disrupted all his plans was the phone call Xu Tongying made to him in the early morning of Christmas in Germany.
She told him: Tourists have begun to drop out of the tours she handles. Although the number of people is not too large, the dropout rate is about 10%, but with many years of travel experience in Southeast Asia, she has a vague feeling that the dropout rate may continue to rise. , because northern tourists will take the same action sooner or later. On the one hand, she reminded Lao Bai to be mentally prepared, and on the other hand, she suggested that Lao Bai return to China as soon as possible to communicate with investors about countermeasures. As for those groups that have not withdrawn yet, just leave them to Tong Lele, Lei Lanting, Dong Qiangqiang and others.
Although quitting the group is an undeniable fact, Lao Bai actually does not agree with Xu Tongying's judgment from the bottom of his heart. In his heart, the cost for Chinese people to travel to Southeast Asia is very low, especially the visa is easy to obtain, so he quit as soon as he said it. The most difficult thing about traveling to Europe and the United States is visa clearance. For those who have already obtained a European tourist visa, can they cancel it casually? He was doubtful. Therefore, he believes that leaving the group is only temporary and will return to normal in February without affecting his overall arrangements for this year. This is just a small and unharmonious episode in outbound travel. No factors can change the Chinese people’s awareness and enthusiasm for European outbound travel. After all, this door has just been opened, and it can be closed wherever it can be said.
Despite his own ideas, Lao Bai still listened to Xu Tongying's suggestion: he and Lele returned to China separately. He will go back first, and Lele will wait for the group to leave and then quickly return to the country to join him. Both of them hope to get the certificate, wedding photos and banquet all at once during the Spring Festival. The first two are relatively simple, and the hotel is the most variable. Although he paid a deposit to the hotel last year, if something happens to the hotel then, he will have to pay more to fix it. The goal he set for himself was to give Lele a perfect wedding. He believed that as long as he got married, Lele would no longer worry about Hualing.
But what Lao Bai didn't expect was that less than three days before New Year's Eve at the end of January, the cancellation rate had soared to 90%. All the originally planned individual tour groups were cancelled, leaving only 10% who had not yet made the decision to cancel the group. Decided business group.
Xu Tongying's words became a prophecy.
Even though he has been in the industry for many years, he has never encountered the weird thing of everyone quitting the group. Even if he has ideas, he has to pay attention to them.
Because he and the investor signed a gambling clause, if he achieves the income and profit required by the investor by the end of the year, everyone will be happy and he will remain unscathed. But if he fails to complete it, then his bet will fail. In addition to repaying the principal of all investors, he will also have to pay high interest. When signing the gambling agreement, in order to prove his gambling ability, he chose to sell the house in his parents' hometown to make up the difference if the company had no money to repay the debt.
Now the betting is high, but the group is gone. No one knows when it will be restored. Even if it is restored, will anyone go abroad to play immediately? In addition to the planned income from leading the group, he also lost the car rental fees, insurance premiums, labor costs and even some hotel accommodation fees that he had paid in advance to lead the group. Although he was able to get most of it back in the end, he still lost the money. There is a lot of money that will never be returned.
Although he is not a pessimist, he can't help but think at this moment: If his script really failed in the bet, should he still marry Lele? Or maybe it's more appropriate to ask, if he really loved her, would he choose to drag Lele into the mud and bear so much pressure and debt just after getting married?
He had mixed feelings in his heart.
If there are no tour groups in China, he must use other business models to make money and use investment funds to do other things, and the sooner the better.
Wait, a faint spark flashed in his mind.
Although the investment agreement was signed with the investor, the other party has not yet transferred the money to Lebai BJ's account. They said they would wait until the accounting was in place. If so, can the bet be cancelled?
"Sir, please straighten the back of the seat." A voice above me said softly.
Lao Bai turned a deaf ear and was concentrating on the thoughts that just popped up in his heart. Will investors accept his idea?
"Sir, please straighten the seat back." The voice repeated again.
"Oh, okay, I'm sorry..." Only then did Lao Bai hear the stewardess reminding him.
The plane descended very quickly. The sudden drop of the fuselage made Lao Bai's ears ring. He took out the chewing gum in his pocket and was about to put it into his mouth when a violent jolt hit him.
The chewing gum landed lightly at his feet.
He couldn't help but sigh and looked out the window again.
He couldn't see anything in the vast yellow sand.
It was not even six o'clock in the evening, and it was already completely dark.
The north wind was howling. Lao Bai was wrapped in a down jacket and carrying a bag, and walked to a dilapidated three-story office building in BJ Nancheng.
Calling it an office building is actually inaccurate, because the building is too short, and almost all the wall covering on the facade has fallen off. The dark blue glass on the left side of the main entrance is also broken, but it is stuck together crookedly and forcibly with transparent glue. It looks miserable.
Lao Bai didn't understand why Xu Tongying arranged the meeting here. He thought he would be able to meet the investors in the afternoon.
It was freezing outside, and he wanted to wait for Xu Tongying in the office building, but there were no chairs or heaters on the first floor. There was only a security guard staring at him eagerly. That look made him feel that it seemed warmer outside the building.
He went back outside again and lit a cigarette for himself while standing in front of the building and looking around, thinking about what he should say when he saw the other person.
(End of chapter)
